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Man claims violence was an attempt to stop attack

A MAN admitted throwing a metal chair during a brawl outside an Oxford takeaway but said he was only trying to escape the area.

Yesterday Waqas Khan, 20, of Furlong Close, Oxford, became the first of four defendants to give evidence during their trial in Oxford Crown Court.

He is alleged to have taken part in a fight that broke out in front of the Taste of Jamaica in Cowley Road, Littlemore, on July 29 last year.

He is accused along with Adam Doyle, 27, of Ladder Hill, Wheatley, Dexter Williams, 24, of Coriander Way, Greater Leys, and Andre Hurst, 25, of Broad Street, Banbury. All four men deny one count of violent disorder and one count of possessing offensive weapons.

Khan said he was waiting for food inside the takeaway with Hurst and Williams when “one or two males” jumped out of a car, one of whom had a baseball bat.

He said: “They tried to come in and we tried to push the door back. It looked like they were going to hurt us. So basically in my own defence I picked up a chair, I went outside and threw the chair to basically just be like ‘stop’.”